The apex court refused to ban a Chennai bandh to protest the killing of civilians in Sri Lanka. The landmark Kerala High Court anti-bandh judgment of 1997, which has so far been used as a precedent by other courts in India and upheld by the apex court, had said, "No political party or organisation can claim... that it is entitled to prevent citizens not in agreement with its viewpoint from exercising their fundamental right or from performing their duties for their own benefit or for the benefit of the nation."
This had made the general public quite happy because it meant an end to frequent strikes that not only bring normal life to a halt but often end up in violence. It is this aspect of bandhs that are most galling for the public. Certainly, every organisation has the right to protest and that is a staple of democracy but equally, every citizen has the right not to participate in a protest.
It is no secret that activists of political parties go around ordering shopkeepers to down shutters or that people stay indoors to avoid the prospect of violence. This is unacceptable and the Kerala High Court judgement -- which ironically had current chief justice of India heading the bench at that time -- put forward the public viewpoint cogently.
By overturning this judgment while invoking democracy, the Supreme Court appears to have ignored the difference between a strike and a bandh. Depending on the severity of the injustice, groups will protest and a strike is one method. But a strike does not mean the entire populace of the area must take part. A bandh, on the other hand, is an enforced shutdown.
Left-ruled states like West Bengal and Kerala face the odd situation where the parties which run the state itself call bandhs to protest something or the other. This is nothing short of absurd.
While political parties will be happy with the apex court's position on bandhs, the court might want to consider the effect such a stand will have on the general public. When a populace stays home out of fear, then democracy has not won.